National Book Award longlist for poetry announced

The longlist for the 2014 National Book Award for poetry was announced Tuesday. The poets who made the cut include two MacArthur “genius” Fellows (Linda Bierds, Edward Hirsch and Mark Strand), an Episcopal priest (Spencer Reece), a professor at UC Riverside (Fred Moten) and a professor at Pomona College (Claudia Rankine).

The list includes one recipient of the Ruth Lily Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement (Fanny Howe) and two former U.S. poets laureate -- Strand, who has received many honors, and Louise Glück, whose many awards include a Pulitzer Prize and the L.A. Times Book Prize.

The longlists are being announced this week: Still to come are nonfiction on Wednesday and fiction on Thursday. This is the second year that the National Book Foundation, which presents the National Book Awards, has announced longlists of 10 books in each category.

The poetry longlist is below.

Linda Bierds, “Roget’s Illusion” (G. P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Group)

Brian Blanchfield, “A Several World” (Nightboat Books)

Louise Glück, “Faithful and Virtuous Night” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Edward Hirsch, “Gabriel: A Poem” (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House)

Fanny Howe, “Second Childhood” (Graywolf Press)

Maureen N. McLane, “This Blue” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Fred Moten, “The Feel Trio” (Letter Machine Editions)

Claudia Rankine, “Citizen: An American Lyric” (Graywolf Press)

Spencer Reece, “The Road to Emmaus” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Mark Strand, “Collected Poems” (Alfred A. Knopf/Random House)

The awards will be presented Nov. 19 at a New York gala hosted by Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket.

Book news and more; I’m @paperhaus on Twitter